


ice cream and my sunday sweater

by theformerone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friendship, Gen, Marijuana, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 10:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17661185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: “Kiba’s right,” she breathes, shutting her eyes so she can feel the sun on her face. “No, Shino’s right. No, I’m right. I’ll make the cookies next time.”





	ice cream and my sunday sweater

**Author's Note:**

> title lifted from noname’s sunny duet

The first time Hinata smokes, she coughs like she’s going to die. 

Kiba doesn’t laugh at her, but he does hide a snicker behind his fist. Shino is at the wheel, turning into a random neighborhood where the roads are sure to be smoother. 

“You choked when we hit that pothole,” he says, turning over his shoulder to look at her in the backseat. 

She’s got the little pipe cradled in her hands like she doesn’t know what to do with it, and for the most part, she doesn’t. Hinata is a good girl. That is, a Good Girl. She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t swear, cue  _Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee_.

But right now her lungs are burning, and so is the back of her throat. She passes the pipe back to Kiba in the passenger’s seat, who pulls like he’s a professional.

”You can try again after Shino’s turn,” he says, offering her an encouraging grin.

Hinata nods, a small bob of her head. Kiba rustles around in the bag at his feet and rugs out a bottle of Gatorade. He hands that to her with a toothy grin and Hinata smiles back.

The car windows are turned down just the barest bit, and the early spring sunshine is warm where the breeze that slips in is cool. 

The three of them were assigned as Group Eight in Intro to Veternary Science. They’d be together all semester for projects and presentations and the massive research paper due at the end of the academic year.

Hinata hadn’t really been sure of what to expect. Kiba regularly brought his service animal Akamaru to class, and Hinata was much too polite to ask what the dog was supposed to help Kiba with even though curiosity didn’t always stop others. 

Shino kept to himself, and seemed to be taking the class as part of his dean’s approved entomology major. 

Their parents had all known each other in high school, which was probably the reason Hinata’s father hadn’t stuck his fingers in and demanded her group be changed when he found out about it. He probably supposed that his high school friends had well behaved children.

”Hey, Hinata?”

She picks her head up off the window. She had managed to sneak a few sips of Gatorade down to soothe her throat, and there’s a pleasant buzzing in her ears behind the music Shino’s playing. A rapper called Noname, if the radio display is telling the truth. Hinata likes her voice. 

“You want another hit?” Kiba asks.

A red flush rises up Hinata’s cheeks. She isn’t too keen on coughing again, not after how rough her first hit had, well, hit her. But this is the first time she’s been invited out with friends that aren’t her cousins since starting her first year at university. And no matter how much she loves Neji, he can sometimes be really, really boring. 

Kiba is rambunctious. That’s an energy that Hinata doesn’t see at home on the estate. He’s loud and boisterous, and when he thinks, he gets really pensive and focused. 

Shino is the opposite - totally quiet unless absolutely necessary. But he isn’t stoic. He’s prone to sweet little smiles when Hinata brings snacks to their study sessions, or offers to make them tea and snacks when they get out from lab late. 

And today, when she had an anxiety attack over her mother’s failing health, when she had run out of the classroom after the text came into her phone, the two of them had followed her without question, even big fluffy Akamaru loping after her.

Shino offered to drive her to the hospital. Kiba and Akamaru came. And when Hinata had gotten there, they had waited while she talked with her father and with Hanabi, while they prayed with eyes squeezed tight for only good news after the sudden and necessary operation that might have added a few precious years to Hyūga Hitomi’s life.

And when there was nothing more to do than wait at the hospital and Hiashi had waved her off, Shino and Kiba were still there. Kiba had called his sister to pick up Akamaru, and not even two minutes off the hospital’s property, he was packing a bowl and offering it to Shino.

So yes, Hinata wants to fit in. She wants them to like her. But she’s not sure she can handle wanting to hack up a lung all over again.

”Kiba, check the front pocket of my bag.”

Kiba gives Shino a jaunty salute and throws his arms in the backseat space beside Hinata before digging through Shino’s backpack.

Hinata catches Shino’s eyes in the rear view mirror. She can see how his dark eyes are a little red from above the rims of his dark glasses. 

“If you want, there are some cookies that you might like better.” 

“Macadamia nut!” Kiba bellows. “You’re holding out on me, motherfucker.” 

“Try having half,” Shino continues, completely ignoring Kiba. He goes hands free on the wheel to re-light the weed, and takes a hit that makes Hinata want to cough in sympathy. “That should be enough to get you where we are. But only half. Less is good too. If you want.”

”But only if you want,” Kiba interjects. He’s already split the aforementioned cookie in half, and he offers one of the halves to Hinata. “You can stay sober and we can drive around and listen to music. We’ll have fun either way.”

Hinata purses her lips. Macadamia nut didn’t sound so bad. Neither did just riding around and listening to Kiba and Shino quibble over which girl rapper with depression was the better lyricist or who was relying too heavily on their production team. 

She reaches out and tries not to let her hand tremble. If half would get them to where they were... 

She takes the half from Kiba, and breaks it in two. He gives her a smile and a wink as Shino turns another corner that spits them out onto a brand new street. 

“Less is good,” she says, voice raspy with her earlier tears and the harshness of her hit. 

The cookie is covered in a thick icing, and the whole thing tastes good aside from a weirdly smoky before-and-aftertaste. She washes it down with Gatorade, slightly surprised by how nice the cookie tasted. 

“You aren’t the only one who can bake,” Shino says from the front. “I’m working on a cinnamon roll edible next.”

The way the two boys laugh at how wide Hinata’s eyes get at the suggestion is funny even to her.

”M-maybe,” she begins, fiddling with the other half of the cookie in her hand, “I could help.”

Kiba gives her a big thumbs up and takes the pipe back from Shino so he can smoke again. 

“If anyone can improve Shino’s snickerdoodle recipe, it’s you.” 

“You think it needs improvements?”

”Obviously. You put in too much cinnamon.”

”It’s a snickerdoodle, dog-breath, they need cinnamon.”

”I shouldn’t be doing a damn non-con cinnamon challenge every time I want a fucking edible, bug-boy.” 

Hinata snorts laughing. She puts a hand up to her mouth to cover up the unladylike sound, but neither Kiba or Shino seem to notice. They go on bickering like her laugh isn’t something to be ashamed of. 

And that - That might be even more magical than the soft floating feeling easing in under her legs, picking up the grief and worry and anxiety that’s held her on shaky foundation all day, and throwing it away into sweet icing and cookie crumbs under her fingernails. 

The music seems so sweet. Something about names not being names, and the rain being calming, and love just being a word unless you show it. 

She leans her head against the window, and nibbles at the edges of her cookie while Kiba holds the pipe to Shino’s lips so he can suck smoke in and breathe rings out.

”Kiba’s right,” she breathes, shutting her eyes so she can feel the sun on her face. “No, Shino’s right. No. I’m right. I’ll make the cookies next time.” 

Kiba looks over his shoulder at her, and the look in his eyes is full of so much fondness, Hinata wants to throw her arms around him and hug him. Does he know that that’s how she feels now in this moment? So fond and so happy that he’s there, and Shino, too? That they somehow managed to protect her from a day that would’ve crumpled her otherwise?

”Next time?” he asks.

”Mm,” she murmurs, tucking her feet under herself and looking out at the blue sky. “Next time.” 

Shino reaches around his seat, and gives her a gentle pat on the leg.

”We’re both looking forward to it.”

**Author's Note:**

> noname is the best and if you haven’t listened to sunny duet, you oughta


End file.
